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COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



ORIENTAL VERSES 



Br 

BERNARD WESTERMANN 



SAN FRANCISCO 

WHITAKER & RAY-WIGGIN CO. 

t 9 J 3 






Copyright 1913 

BY 

Whitaker & Ray-Wiggin Co. 



JAN -5 I9i'4 



•CI,A3614 6? 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Oriental Verses 5 

Nirvana 6 

Panama 7 

The Call of the East - 8 

Fujiyama 9 

By the Canal 10 

The Fox Shrine 11 

Mitsugahama _ 12 

To the Miyajima Tori 14 

Waiting « 15 

Mist and the Curtain of Night 16 

To Tensho Daijin „... 17 

The Conqueror 18 

Kamarada _ 19 

The Boxers 20 

The Wheel 21 

Ishi No Yama 22 

My Garden 23 

Mirum 24 

Passing Sails 25 

Heroism _ 26 

Shimonoseki 27 

De Senectute 28 

Inscription From the Japanese 30 

The Bottom of the Sea _ 31 

Ways Forgot 33 

Asleep , 34 

The Fog on the Downs 36 

Herodias' Daughter 38 

Naturae Dolor 41 

The Dreamer of Dreams 42 

Turn, Truant Days 43 

The Tribute to the Minotaur _ 44 

The Spirit of the Foam 45 

The Gate of Tears 46 

The Bond 47 

The Father's Children . 49 

The Hermit Thrush 51 

The Mermaid 53 

Balshazar 55 

Shinto _ 59 

The Goblin King 65 

Glow Golden Ocean 67 

Samothoe 68 

The Heart That Eemembers 69 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



ORIENTAL VERSES 

Old Hafiz, and thou, maker of silk tents 

Of Nishapur, and thou who carvedst well 

Upon a cherry tree what thou wouldst tell 
To Nihon's captive lord, hence, hence, O hence 
The massive meter and the heavy sense 

That ever in ouf best creations dwell ! 

Your thoughts are fountains, ours are like a 
well ; 
Our hearts are groping in a void immense. 
A granite column ours, a seaward plain, 

Yours of the Orient a mosque divine. 
Silvery, shining, living, till the fane 

Like Nature's self breathes in the soft moon- 
shine, 
A poppy opening amid golden grain, 

A sword, a mirror, in a traceried shrine. 



[5] 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



NIRVANA 



There is Amida, sublime and high, 
Who far in a Daimyo's garden stands, 
Eyes half closed, he has crossed his hands ; 

He waits for nothing, he cannot die. 

He has tasted and drunk of the wines of life, 
Of every passion and conquered each. 

Till a silent power has changed the strife 
To the sentient calm that the soul may reach. 



[6] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



PANAMA 



A thousand streams, a thousand currents flow, 
An embassy of ships seeks, mile on mile, 
To greet thee where, with thine eternal smile. 

Thou givest each to each the deeps below. 

Priestess of Earth's new marriage ! Shy and slow 
The East looked on the West ; there is no wile 
But is her secret, yet a weary while 

She waited, looking to the sunset's glow. 

Till with thy living, sacramental tide 

Lo ! they are one. Let the white surges play 

The anthem of the bridegroom and his bride 
Forever hoping, now forever gay ! 

Fly thou, great eagle, bear the tidings wide 
To strands afar that know not of our day. 



[7] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE CALL OF THE EAST 

Gold and the plotting of men 

And the steam of a city at night ! 

Better the reek of a fen 

And a thousand fevers to fight. 

Who would be crampt in a pen 

Who can lie under heaven at night? 

Hundreds of buildings to tower 

Over the hard flagged way, 
Hundreds of clocks on the hour 
Filtering and gilling the day. 
What is there worth to say 

When ten thousand tongues are repeating 
Slander, and lies and cheating 
Over the way? 

As for me, I was called and I came, 

Not to find, not to leave. 
But a wind came, blowing my name, 

And, behind, who would grieve? 
Death is a longer going 

And life but a short reprieve. 

You say there is nothing to do — 

No life to live, in the East. 
What of the rest, and you, — 
Say you drink and feast 

Of music, art, books and the play, 
Is that living? Or is it living least, 
Watching most, all the day? 
Is life on the page, in the scroll, on the stage, 
Or out with the winds in their rage 
And the lights on the bay? 

[8] 



ORIENTAL VERSES 



FUJIYAMA 



Fuji is light and snow-crowned in the air, 
Like an old pyramid of cloud enwrought 

By cloud kings long ago when earth was fair 
To an eternal shape of beauty, fraught 

With all men's dreams, high hopes and steep 
despair. 

A hundred vales of flowers shall grow bare, 
A thousand peoples pass, and when they go, 
Still, on untenanted calm heights of snow. 

The smile of Shaka will dwell changeless, there. 



[9] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



BY THE CANAL 

Lo the swift years like silent ships go by. 

With golden sails or grey they pass and fade, 
Bearing their cargoes each, wrought out and 
made, 
Symbols of all that is beneath the sky, 
Iron and wool and the rich Tyrian dye, 

Bones, and bright onyx, lead and lambent jade. 
But see ! by quay and bank, empty and floating 

high, 
Uncargoed barks, anear, their stately sweep-oars 
ply. 



[10 J 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE FOX SHRINE 

In the green dawn to the silent door 

Who Cometh, warily, warily. 
When I and my children lie on the floor 

And they laugh merrily, merrily? 

He Cometh without with a silent tread; 

Who knoweth ? Of old I have seen him ; 
In a nest of leaves is his burrowed bed 

And a spray of pine to screen him. 

His coat is bright as the maple leaf, 

His eye is keen, is keen. 
Lo, if ever lovers be come to grief, 

'Tis he that hath come between. 

I built him a shrine in the camphor grove 
And decked it cheerily, cheerily. 

Spiced with sandal-wood and with clove ; 
And when he cometh wearily, wearily. 

The blossoms glow and the tapers gleam, 

And within in the dim array 
He seeth himself and he falleth adream; 

So he worketh no ill that day, that day, 

He worketh no ill that day! 



[in 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



*MITSUGAHAMA 

Noon wanes and shadows broaden on the wall; 

The hum recedes, the turning of grim wheels 
Grows less, and down the long and whispering 
hall 

The wasted glory of the sunet steals. 

And so from noon I journey into night. 

What kens my day of all the hours? Not one 
But might be seeing golden kingdoms won 

And kingly camps, and armed foes in flight. 

Day goes, comes night with dark, long hours of 
pain, 

When from my couch I watch the lantern light 
Approach and die, approach and die again, 

Till all things die except the living night. 

And one within ! I have not known him well, 
In the quick-fired days of haste and act, 

But he has waited shyly; when I fell 
And since, when I have lain lone, pent and 
rackt, 

He speaks unceasing. His of old were dreams 
And magic pictures of the days to come ; 

He used, he says, to drink of wondrous streams 
Now dry, and list to voices that are dumb, 

Voices that clearly spoke of high, bright things 
In a free world. And is the world yet free? 



*The Russian war prisoners were confined near this point. 

[12] 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



I tell him he should ask of the world's kings : 
Who am I now that he should ask of me? 

Then comes chill dawn, and at its breath, another 
Steals through the room. I have not seen his 
face. 

But he speaks kindly: Wherefore, gentle brother, 
Dwells ever sorrow in this silent place? 

Such is all life. But I of old was weary 

And sought beyond. My name is feared, but I, 

I know I found but rest and not the eerie 
Long dreaded silence of the men who die. 

Then every dawn I give my hand, and dimly 
He draws me, but the daylight comes too soon 

And the great wheels begin their turning grimly, 
And so from night I journey into noon. 



[13] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



TO THE MIYAJIMA TORI 

Stand, mighty gate, portal of peace and prayer, 
In lonely beauty 'mid the waters stand. 
Who seeks the shrine in thy self-seeking land? 

The priest may bend, but comes the suppliant 
there? 

Once, rolled the voices of the gods in air; 
Their way is empty, silent is the strand, 
Save when those seek thee with the breezes 
bland 

Who bind the love-flowers in their midnight hair. 

And Hachiman goes never forth to war, 

Benten's sweet lute untouched the winds may 
ply 
Till the great Wheel hath turned its round once 
more 
And marts, and ports, and sounding mills shall 
die. 
Stand, mighty gate, and watch the times of yore 
Dawn yet again in that far, sunrise sky. 



[14] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



WAITING 



I know the beach is white beside the sea, 
And bronzed fishers draw their golden nets 
Where the maned tide in myriad caverns frets 

In a far land where winds and life are free. 

I know there is on some untrodden lea 

A lodge of silence where the lamplight falls 
O'er pictured faces on the twilight walls, 

And one has waited, waited long for me. 



[15] 



ORIENTAL VERSES 



MIST AND THE CURTAIN OF NIGHT 

Mist, and the curtain of night, 

And the sob of the sea on the stones, 
And a warning in basser tones 

Where the siren hard by the light 

Heaves in the surge and groans. 

Wrecks, and a dead man's bones, 
And a chilling phantom of fright. 
Mist, and the curtain of night. 

And the sob of the sea on the stones. 



[16] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



TO TENSHO DAIJIN* 

The sunlight has shot with its arrows, 

And out of the valley below 
Has wakened the slumbering shadows 

And set Fujiyama aglow. 

Who comes with her shy silvern sandals 

From stream to stream swift down the steep? 

She gladdens the blossoms she handles, 
She laughs by the willows that weep. 

She bends where the earliest dawning 
Is slant through the glistening bowers. 

And brushes the tears of the morning 
From the wondering eyes of the flowers. 

Dear Goddess of glorious waking, 
As tender and fresh as the streams, 

Be with us when daylight is breaking, 
And lead us from dreams unto dreams. 



♦The Sun Goddess. 



[17] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE CONQUEROR 

He who treads in the van, 

However the torrent blows, 
He who strives as he can 

And counts not the horde of his foes, 
He who deems him a man 

And fearless his deeming shows. 
Needs neither fear nor plan. 

Just to walk in the throng 

Up on the hills or down, 
Just to trust and be strong. 

Never to know a frown. 
But head up, striding along, 

To v/ear a smile for a crown, 
And for sceptre, a song. 



[18] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



KAMARADA 



Kamarada is in Lama, 

Where the silver waters flow 

Ever past the black, wide windows 
To the bright seas, deep below, 

Ever past the walls eternal 
Where eternal banners blow. 

There the ivy waves triumphant 
From the turrets of the wall. 

And across the silent lintel 

Where the feet of shadows fall, 

Shadows that abide eternal 
In the stone and gloomy hall. 

Pacing from the ivoried chamber 
Where the tinkling crystals talk 

In a tiny silvern treble. 

Pacing to the traceried walk 

Where forgotten sunbeams linger, 
Slow and ghostly see them stalk. 

Blue the changeless vault above them, 

Blue below, the liquid deep, 
But the grey of hoary winter 

Is upon the walls of Sleep, 
Winter that may never waken, 

Though its snows have ceased to weep. 

Winds the changeless serpent, coiling 
On the throne of polished gold. 

Guards the dragon still the doorway 
Where no footstep, howe'er bold, 

Ever crosses to the silence 

That the nameless Shadows hold. 

[19] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE BOXERS 

Oh for a white, white hull 

And smoking funnels of tan 
And a round boom out of the lull ! 

That were the sight for a man. 

A Catling gun and the tramp of feet 
And real men coming up the street, 

Men with red blood in their veins, 
And a thousand yelling devils would run, 
Not so much for the Catling gun 

But for men, men, men who have hearts and 
brains ! 

I know a tune that would stir 

My pulse if I'd died a year ! 
Mixed it is with the bullets' whir 
Under the palm, under the fir — 

That is the tune I would hear, 
With a fife, and a drum. 
And a shout, and a hum. 

And the white man's roaring cheer! 

What is the gleam in the sun 

By the temple, beyond the bazaar? 
Just a point, like a star, 

And then, look! one by one 

See them shine! It's my flag! It's mine! 

And the waiting is done. 



[20] 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



THE WHEEL 

I met a Priest upon the way 

From Yamada to Noji-ri " 
Where Mount Asama all the day 

Wears cloud-veils of the distant sea. 
And aye he droned a song- that said : 

The Wheel is just; the Wheel is true, 

That reckons not of One or Two 
Nor all the Living nor the Dead. 



[21] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



ISHI NO YAMA 

I saw two men that strove upon a hill, 
Rolling- a rock that, heavier than they. 
Stood in the path, and one of them to stay 

His yielding strength and his fast ebbing will, 
Shouted aloud with every fresh essay. 

But silent bowed the other to the load. 

Whose face I could not see, his body bent 
Like one whose very spirit was intent. 

And lo, the rock was moved, and by that road 
Up, o'er the hill, all silently he went. 



[22] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



MY GARDEN 



My garden is a hill above a shore 

And it is crowned with amaranth and rose, 

A pleasant breeze among the blossoms blows, 

And drowsy bees 'portnne them evermore. 

Beneath, I know a rich and glittering store 
Of golden booty many a year has lain, 

Whose rumor is of old romantic lore. 

By black sea captains borne across the main. 

Still, be the beast of hunger at my door. 

No spade of mine shall strike one tendril pain; 
The earth is full of many a sordid gain. 

Thank God it holds some few bright blossoms 
more. 



[23] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



MIRUME* 



Mirume! Mirume! so she cried, 
Down by the billows, down by the tide, 
Down by the green, by the ebbing water, 
Kinemiewa the Sea God's daughter, 
Whose lover hath died. 

Mirume! Mirume! Where art fled? 

Many a furlong far, far sped, 

Down by the glimmering coral isles. 
Wooed to laughter by mermaids' smiles, 

She dreameth thee dead. 

Mirume ! Mirume ! Doth she know 
None can wither and die below? 

'Mid the sands that are deathless weaving, 
Windless, waveless, there is no grieving. 
Where thou dost go. 

Mirume! Mirume! Still she cries, 
Wet with tears are her cloud-grey eyes, 
Kinemiewa the Sea God's daughter 
Ever beside the cold, green water 
That never replies. 



*Kinemiewa, daughter of Irima, God of the sea and ships loved 
Mirume a deep sea sprite. He was unfaithful and went to dwell with 
the sea nymphs, but Kinemiewa, because neither she nor her father 
could live under the water, but only upon it, ever .mourned him as 
drowned. Pearls are her tears. 



[24] 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



PASSING SAILS 

The shadowed river meets the sunny strait, 
Wide bends the strait to mingle with the sea, 

And carven sampans veering through the gate. 
But never a word, O never a word for me ! 

Aye, one by one their prows the purple flood 

Weaveth to mist, their sails, the silver sky. 
Then shall I know that age hath touched my 
blood, — 
When I have learned, unmoved, to watch them 
die. 



[25] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



HEROISM 



To be up, to strive, and to do, 
To shine before men, a light, 
A meteor in the night, 

Guiding the hero few 

On to the hidden height, — 
Now, with the future bright 

Is that what it means to you? 

To shout, to strike, to be proud 
Is easy, — to this we were born. 
But to brave a world of scorn 

With lips closed and head bowed, 
When life is sombre and worn 
To keep your eyes on the morn, — 

This is above the crowd. 

When the fife sings shrill, 

"Come away to the war ! 

There is glory for all, for all !" 
And the drums go prating over the hill. 

And they call for more — for more ! 
It is easy to serve, and fall. 
But the house is still, so still, 

Where a woman stands at the door. 

Must we sunder and hew? 

Must we ride to the fight? 

Must we humble and smite? 
Is that the one way true 

To Truth and Beauty and Right? 

Or is there in God's calm sight, 
A place for the silent too? 

[26] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



SHIMONOSEKI 

In the blue chill of morning, the great bell 
Of Kameyama speaks across the straits. 
I know the sun lies waiting by those gates 

Whose blue portcullis yester-evening fell. 

Thus, says my heart, Thine own beloved waits ! 

Sinks the bright clay. The timid, silvern moon 
O'er the gaunt heights begins to lure the sea 
To smiles ; it is her changeless witchery ; 

Still leaps his heart that languished all the noon. 
This, speaks my soul, is thy beloved to thee ! 



[27] 



ORIENTAL VERSES 



DE SENECTUTE 

The World hath aged, this World and his grim 
wife 

With many a year, with many a year and grey. 

Old age is in their blood, sleep and decay, 
And shunning of the bright and armored strife. 

Music that thrilled untroubling dies away. 
Yet I would reckon once again with life. 

I do not struggle, yet within I feel 

A strong, deep strain that will not be denied, 
That cries persistent, that when I have died 

I must have met the tyrant and his steel. 

Have fought the battle, and gone down in pride 

Where the scythed chariot turns its glittering 
wheel. 

What mettle and what temper were the rest 
I do not know, I have no speech to tell ; 
I dwelt apart, for I could never dwell 

As they, I only know: to fight my best. 

Once to have wrought all knightly, that were 
well. 



[28] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



And if, in the red morning, when the fray- 
Has faded with the army of the stars, 
One reads my breast and knoweth all that 
mars 

Is but the clouding of a friendless day, 

He knows I too bear wounds beneath my scars, 

Where still beats on a heart long hid away. 

Grant me one work, brief, high and set with fear, 
That I may do straightly and to the end. 
And for a moment at its closing bend 

And hearken to a voice I long to hear : 

My own soul saying. Truly wrought, O friend. 



L29] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



INSCRIPTION FROM THE JAPANESE 

Of all men ancient and wise that dwell, 
What Cometh, what goeth alike 'tis well, 

Who dareth to say? 
But I heard by the Kando of Kori Ken 
That that which is lost and is found again 

It dearer than aye. 



[30] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA 

Ships of Cathay and Nishapur and Tyre, 
Sidonian quinqueremes with gold in store, 

Tribute to Zenghis Khan's untamed desire 
From Xenday and the blue Circassian shore, 
These are my heritage and thousands more ! 

Junks of Camul and caravals of Spain, 

Convoys from Elephanta, pearls and slaves, 

A monarch's lust, an empire's greed of gain 
Designed to glut, they rest beneath my waves. 
Room ? There is room for all, and soundless 
graves ! 

Fronds that are deathless sway upon the stream, 
Anemones that lave their shining arms 

Subtly emit a phosphorescent gleam 

And waving, wield dim, mesmerismic charms 
On all below, and soothe the gloom's alarms. 

Fair grow the gaunt, black wrecks with violet 
moss. 
Increscent carbuncles, and tufted sprays 

Of coral ; here no longer need they toss. 

Fretted and tried, but happy in their loss 

They slumber, dreaming, through soft, umber- 
ous days. 



[31] 



ORIENTAL VERSES 



Seamen of Ophir, Tharsis and the Ind, 

Carthage and Venice and the Albion isles, 
Wearied and wave worn wrestlers with the wind 
Calmy repose ; for each a mermaid smiles 

And lulls his spirit with soft, Lydian wiles, 
Sunk in the peace of my deep, mystic realm, 

Where nightly o'er the gilded planets pass 
And the dim hulls of ships, but never helm 
Nor rudder stirs to labor, neath the whelm 

Of waters, green and tranquil as a glass. 

Strange irradescent fish, a pallid light 

Diffusing, glide through port and breach agape, 
Great serpents, bred in subaquanean night. 

Vast, bloated monsters, armed for war and 
rape. 

Leviathan, and beasts of scorpion shape. 
Silent, the sands creep, slow, pervading all, 

Shifting and changing softly in the flow, 
Silting through seam and crevice, till they pall 
And shroud the sleepers in their kingly hall, 

Roofed with sardonyx, paved with gold below. 



[32] 



ORIENTAL VERSES 



WAYS FORGOT 

Deep in each heart doth silent dwell 
One who of other worlds could tell, 

And ways forgot, 
Often communing from afar 
With many a spirit-peopled star, 

But speaking not. 
Till sudden, at some magic sound 
Or sight, or scent, his heart hath found, 

And used to know, 
He touches all the quivering strings 
That twine the heart, and whispers things 

Of long ago. 
A ray at sunset, like a word 
Far spoken, yet distinctly heard. 

The hum of day 
In all its noon grown to a dream, 
A look that makes the great world seem 

To slip away, 
And in its place, a shade behind 
The wistful portals of the mind, — 

A long closed story. 
Whose words sublime we hearkened, then 
Unknowing, passed beyond their ken, 

But not their glory. 
And do we sleep, and stirring hear 
Muffled, the sounds of Day that, clear, 

Go on forever? 
And shall we rouse to stronger sight. 
To perfect memory of the light, 

That darkened never? 



L33] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



ASLEEP 



Slumber and reverie steal on the valley, 
Sleep in a shroud, 

In a sunlit mist as of dreams, 
Where a white-breasted, indolent cloud 

Swims, till it seems 
That the hills have yielded and bowed 
In an endless reverie over the valley; 
Even the streams 
Murmur but sleepily, sing not aloud. 

And the voice of the bird is still 

In the infinite, shrouded deeps, 
And the wheel is hushed of the mill 

Where the dark stream seeps. 
They have sung their fill, 
The bird and the mill. 

And the world, it sleeps. 

Billowless, breathing free sleepeth the south sea, 
Guiltless of storm, 

With a thousand fathoms below, 
And a breast where the sun is warm 

And islands glow, 
That are fragile and fair of form. 
Billowless, breathing free laves them the south 
sea, 
Daily they grow. 
Nurtured in quietness, thoughtless of storm. 



[34] 



ORIENTAL VERSES 



And the pink-tinged cockles float 

Into the mystic deep. 
Silently steals each boat 
To the coral keep, 
To the still lagoon, 
Whose walls all hewn, 
Their builders sleep. 



[35] 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



THE FOG ON THE DOWNS 

The sea has called, and the restless fog" has come 
From Labrador, with cloud-built tents, and 
show 
Of ghostly legions, legions that are dumb. 

That, never hastening, glide where e'er they go. 
The sea, their ally, with his muffled drum, 
Is sounding on, and yonder is the foe, 

The sentinel cliffs, close-ranged, now mutely 
grand. 
Now vocal with an inbreathed voice of woe, 

A voice of lamentation for the land 
Whom the stern sea is stealing from them slow 
With but the beckoning of his master hand, 
And she, the white one, shivering must go. 

So wrapt am I, so shepherded alone 

In the vast fold, my every step is pent 
And fearful, not my shadow is my own, 

I float, an island in the firmament ; 

I know no world save what is briefly lent 
And briefly taken, while a vast unknown 
Boils round about, mocking the little shown, 

Surging and speechless in its discontent. 
Were but this curtain by some sea-breeze blown, 

Some strong, keen gale from o'er the salt 
leagues fleeing. 
What wide and stirring scene of wave on stone 

And cloud-born winds the prisoned billows free- 
ing! 
Were but one step to hurl me from this throne, 

Or raise me from this depth of lesser being. 
What is beyond, that infinite Alone 

That life and death are preludes to the seeing? 

[36] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



Like the grey sheep that ruminating stray 

This seaward down, we wander girt and blind. 
Forever clouds shut in their viewless day ; 
Are mists within and fogs without combined 
To blur their vision and to keep confined 
Their patient gaze? So is the lordlier mind 
Bounded by barriers, hemmed by mists, the way 
Uncertain on, forever lost behind. 

Burned their not that one spark in spite of 
rain, 
That spirit free to break the mould of clay, 

That heart within contemptuous of the chain, 
That other self, unshackled to the brain, 
Whose dwelling is afar, who can away. 

And down the gulf can traverse to that main 
The white-winged sea-gulls seek, nor finding, 
turn aerain. 



[37] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



HERODIAS' DAUGHTER 

Great Antipas, the son of Malthace 

And Herod, Archilaus' brother, king, 
Tetrarch of Perea, Galilee 

And east and south from Jordan's hidden 
spring, 
Looked from his carven throne above a board 

Strewn with the riches that the black barks 
bring 
From Fez and Firzan, laden with a horde 
Of sweets from all the spice isles, and the lord 

Still discontent, called Heroda to sing. 

Her form was lithe, her step was light and gay, 

She danced as never mortal danced before. 
Her hair was dark and tumbled, fell away, 

Her sandaled feet the faster beat the floor. 
Her silk-scarved bodice rose and fell, the pink 

Came in her cheek, her mouth a crimson door 
For love sighs framed, half-opened, seemed to 

drink 
A faint intoxication, till the brink 

Some sweet sound sought and song came flow- 
ing o'er. 

Mother of beauty, daughter of my sires. 
Thou parent fire of this dancing flame, 

I give thee joy ! Of all thy heart's desires 

What e'er thou askest, let thy daughter name. 

Though half my realm be tribute to her charms, 
My dower to beauty Caesar's self shall shame. 

I own my kingdom captive to thine arms ! 



[38] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



He spoke. The princes stirred with vague 
alarms ; 
A whisper rose and none knew whence it came. 

The captains and the chiefs peered down the 
board 
With rustling silks. The two dark heads were 
bent 
Together in a sinister accord, 

Their floating curls beneath the lamplight blent. 
Till like a willow bowed beside a brook, 

Released when spring a budding life hath lent, 
The girl's form, thin-veiled, straightened, and a 

look 
Shone in her eyes that all the radiance took 
From lamps and gems and left them pale and 
spent. 

And Antipas cried loudly, Ask ! 'Tis thine ! 

And while she held each bearded countenance 
chained : 
I ask to drink, O Herod, redder wine 

Than any that my lips this night have drained. 
Hither, upon a charger, bring, she cried, 

The head of John with all his blood bestained ! 
And red the flush as if reflected dyed 
Her glowing face ; and with revengful pride 

Herodias beheld her victory gained. 

Below, in dungeons tenanted by night, 

Broke on the prophet's dream the headsman's 
tread. 
While many a form without in hurried flight, 

L39] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



The tidings through the long, dark marches 
spread. 
And e'er a gilded slave triumphant bore 

In smiling pomp aloft that mighty head 
They spread from mouth to mouth, from door to 

door, 
Till One beside the Galileean shore 

Listened and knew His messenger was dead. 



[40] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



NATURAE DOLOR 

Why are the eyes of violets sad 

With unshed tears, 
And yet the songs they hear are glad. 

There are no fears 

For violets and no spiteful years. 

Why do the willows sadly weep 

Above the lake, 
Seeming to watch a loved one's sleep 

Who will not wake, 

And yet the willows have no hearts, to break. 



[41] 



OEIENTAL VERSE 



THE DREAMER OF DREAMS 

My tower looks on the white and green 
Of a surging sea, with the rocks between 
Where seaweeds stranded at ebb of tide 
Despairing, have Hngered and hopeless died 
Ere their strong eternal lover, the sea 
Surged back to reclaim them and set them free. 

By day the clouds are drifting by 

Into the measureless, out of the sky 

Till they yield and shrink when the sunset's bars 
Are broken and all the thronging stars, 

Pale prisoners peer on the wine-dark sea, 

The rocks, the taper-lit tower, and me. 

My taper flickered the long nights through, 

Yet no one saw it, or ever knew 
That it burned, yet maybe it still will call 
Some friend from the measureless, after all. 

Who knows? There may on that broad, dim sea 

Be one I seek and that seeks for me. 

One who has dreamed the things I dream, 
To whom they are as to me they seem. 

Who knows the voice of the waves as strong 
They sing their mighty, their deathless song. 
Who owns the touch of the tender hand 
I have felt in dreams, and will understand. 



[42] 



OEIENTAL VEKSES 



TURN, TRUANT DAYS 

Turn, truant days, turn, turn your flight. 
The song is old and I have heard it oft, 
And often echoed when the breeze was soft 
And each dear day embraced a sweeter night, — 
Turn, truant days, turn, turn your flight! 

Turn, truant days, pursue your flight: 

I have unlearned the measure of my song. 
Who learns to wait, though he hath waited 
long. 
The past is dark, the future is alight : 
Turn, truant days, pursue your flight: 

Turn, truant days, turn, turn your flight, 
Your orbit is eternal, and before, 
I see your faces lighting me once more 

Like stars, upon the bosom of the night. 

Turn, truant days, turn, turn your flight! 



[43] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE TRIBUTE TO THE MINOTAUR 

After the Painting by Gendron. 

Maidens of light, expectant still and grieving, 

Your garments trail the flood, your hands up- 
raised 
To guard your fear-filled eyes, your bosoms heav- 
ing, 

Has dread so left you motionless and dazed? 
The wave beats not upon the stony portal, 

The ship sways silent at its dripping sill. 
And hath He spared you? Beauty is immortal, 

And all is still, forever, ever still. 

Down the dark cavern by the torches flaring 

The sandal'd feet have flitted into gloom. 
Inured to joy, once gladness ever bearing, 

How can they bear you to the call of doom? 
Your garland lilies from Orontes' valleys, 

Tenderly glowing, see they drink their fill 
Of the salt tide that coldly o'er them rallies, 

But all is still, forever, ever still. 

Wind thy sad horn, O boatman dimly peering, 

Rouse the gaunt raven from his nameless feast. 
Sleep is the end of all that thou art fearing: 

Silent the victim, silent is the priest. 
For Time's dim courts are thronged with all th'e 
fairest 

Of every age. They triumph o'er his will — 
Deathless are they, the burden that thou bearest. 

All, all is still, forever, ever still. 



[44] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE SPIRIT OF THE FOAM 

I was born of rainbow foam 
In my father's sea-green home, 

And I know no lord or king 
Where I roam. 
I am free, the deeps beneath me 
And the snow-white gulfs to wreath me 

With an opalescent ring. 
And the dome, — 
Laughing eyes or cloudy frown — 

It is mine, I love it well ; 

When the wave is on the swell 

Up goes my cockle shell, 
And down. Oh, down ! 

There's a palace built for me 
In the sunlit summer sea, 

And its walls are all of pearl. 
And of jade. 
Where the coral gnomes are toiling 
Down beneath the waters boiling, 

Unafraid. 
There, if some poor mortal drown. 

Bear Kim lightly, bear him well ; 

When the wave is on the swell 

Up goes my cockle shell, 
And down, Oh, down ! 



[45] 



OEIENTAL VEKSES 



THE GATE OF TEARS 

Two gates there are on the path of life 
That stretches away through the years, 

And one is the gate of joy, dear love, 
And one is the gate of tears. 

And one is set in a meadow deep 

Where sweet-scented flowers cloy. 
And your feet are wet with the dew, dear love. 

And that is the gate of joy. 

And the other is hard by a mighty rock, 

Where a bristling wood uprears. 
And your feet are pierced with the stones, dear 
love, 

And that is the gate of tears. 

And when you come to the meadow gate. 

Where a thousand hopes decoy. 
It may be that I shall be far away 

When you pass through the gate of joy. 

But when you come to the rocky gate, 

Whatever the future years, 
God grant I be by your side, dear love, 

When you pass through the gate of tears. 



[46] 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



THE BOND 



I looked on one whose death was nigh, 
I saw his palsied fingers shake, 
But there was fire when he spake, — 

Life struggled bravely in his eye. 

Till some strong spring upwelling high. 
The soul its secret fetter broke 
And, standing in his eyes, it spoke 

As one who knows he shall not die. 

God never made me to abhor 

The light, the language of the sun, 
Unbounded freedom, never one 

Of all His hosts doth love it more. 

And power is in me now to soar, 

Blazing and bright. His heavens wide. 
Yet here in daily chains I bide, 

My bondage groweth evermore. 

Like one who in some cunning keep. 

Some prison built for doomed men, 
Sees daily all the walls that pen 

His little space upon him creep. 

Filled with a strength that fain would leap 
And strive to hurl the ramparts down 
That cramp his limbs, he can but frown 

Upon the Silence, till he sleep. 



[47] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



God never made me to deform 

My likeness with a borrowed mould, 
A mask with hundred handlings cold, 

When all my life beneath beats warm ! 

I love to rule myself the storm. 

To wield the lightnings that wathin 
Fight to be free. They call them sin : 

God knows. He made them in His form. 

God never made a death to fear. 

I know no end ; and yet I wait 

Within the confines of a state 
Where dwelleth all that I hold dear 
And know not, when that change draws near 

That is to free me of my chain, 

If I shall look on aught again 
For which I would have freedom here. 

Who made me of the frame of God 
And put in heart and brain His fire. 
He knows the battle of desire 

Against the dull, encumbering sod. 

Who put within m}^ hand the rod 
AMiose wielding is His deathless joy. 
He knows he hath not framed a toy. 

But He hath made, and chained, a god. 



[48] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE FATHER'S CHILDREN 

A father led all of his children 
One after another, alone 

To a room that was sunny and cheerful, 
Though faced with a coping of stone, 
Of grim, granite rock and of stone. 

He left them there, barring securely 
The door, and he came not again, 

And some of the children were happy, 
Pretending themselves to be men. 
Imagining that they were men. 

They played with their toys and their baubles, 
They laughed in their vain, childish pride, 

But some of them grew very weary, 
And some were neglected, and cried. 
And some there were lonely that cried. 

Some called to their father, and wondered 
When he would release them at last, 

But the father afar never answered, 
And slowly the long hours passed, 
Yes, surely, the long hours passed. 

And others caught up the bright playthings 
And kept them, and gloated in greed. 

But some there were hurt ih the struggle, 
And some were in hunger and need. 
Some children there were who had need. 



[491 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



At last, when the sunlight was dying, 
They all grew afrighted alone ; 

All day they had longed for their father 
And cried to the wall that was stone, 
The cold, cruel wall all of stone. 

Some said he had never existed, 
And some had forgotten his name. 

But they all fell asleep in the darkness, 
And when it was morning, he came. 
With the sun in its rising, He came. 



50] 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



THE HERMIT THRUSH 

I who have been alone so long, 
So much apart have sung my song 
In solitary ways, 

It seems a grevious thing and wrong- 
That I amidst the stranger throng 
Must finish out my days. 

It all is strange, and strangest, men. 
My days are few; I know not when 
My cage shall cease to bind. 

Then, like my song, shall I be free 
And floating through eternity 
Leave worlds and men behind? 

For here, they know not what I sing; 
They hark as to a lifeless thing. 
And when my song is sung. 

They do not know my heart is there, 
All palpitating on the air, 
Ecstatic, rapture wrung. 

Ah, I have poured my life so long 
In many a burst of spirit song. 
My strength is ebbing fast 

And all the fires of all the years 
And all man's transports and his tears 
Must die in me at last. 



[51] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



I only sang my song to God, 
The lowly flower, the virgin sod. 
The sympathic wood, 

But these that go their hurried way 
About me, through the garish day 
Have never understood. 

Alone, would I in joy expire. 
As fire restored to parent fire, 
The stream that finds the sea. 

What Nature gives she understands. 
Though fallen in blind, neglectful hands 
She hearkens unto me. 



L52J 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE MERMAID 

By the phosphorous gleam, by the pole star's 
beam, 
By the wheel house lantern white, 
I see her rise 'neath the star-set skies. 
When the sea-mew cries, 
By night. 

She beckons and calls to her emerald halls, 

She tuneth her living lyre, 
And she melts away in the ocean spray 
At the break of day. 

In fire. 

Black is her hair and her face is fair, 
Like a corpse she is pale and cold. 

And she beckons me to the deep, dark sea. 

Boisterous and free. 
And bold. 

Sweetly she sings where the sea dirge rings, 
Where the sands go creeping slow; 

Houses of pearl bright flags unfurl. 

Where the currents whirl 
And flow. 

Singeth she soft when the stars are aloft, 

Singeth she loud in the gale ; 
When winds low winging, the waves are flinging, 
I hear her singing, 

And quail. 



L53] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



Come down to my realm, O thou man at the 
hehn ! 
Come down unto us, cries she ; 
Riches we bring from the Islands of Spring, 
To make you a king 
Of the sea ! 

Glide and flow, glide and flow, 
Come to my castles of gold below. 

Mermaids are sleeping, sands are creeping, 
Soft and slow, soft and slow. 

Glide and flow, glide and flow, 
Never a storm in our realm doth blow ! 
Kings of the earth sleep here below. 
Soft and slow, soft and slow. 



L54 



ORIENTAL VERSES 



BALSHAZAR 



All Babylon is light, the rich and rare, 

The courted capital of Assyria's kings. 
And many a strain of music fills the air. 

And many a scent the night-born blossom 

flings, 
Till the deep midnight to the welkin rings. 
Balshazar makes a feast of golden wine. 
Who rules tonight o'er many a princely 
hoard. 
His princes and his wives about him shine, 
With many a honeyed word whereon kings 
dine. 
And power and beauty wreathe the sumptu- 
ous board. 

Balshazar makes a feast. High flames the fire 

Of pride and passion kindled in the heart, 
And none may dare withhold the king's desire, 
Who sells his subject slaves in many a mart, 
But sing his praises some, applaud them part. 
And the great revel swings with feast and 
song. 
Gay with the laughter of a thousand lips. 
Rolls the rich voice the sounding halls along. 
Loud and more boisterous, for the wine is 
strong 
That Vanity from jev/elled goblets sips. 

Goblets of crystal, eye-bright in the flame, 
All roseate with wine, fair to the gaze. 

But the great king, imperious, calls the name 
Of his high treasurer, and in amaze 

L55] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



He hastens, and he crieth "Length of days!" 
But great Balshazar bids him bring the gold 

And silver vessels from Jehovah's shrine 
In vanquished Jerusalem of old, 
Seized by his sire when Judea's fold 

Was ravaged b}^ the wolf of Palestine. 

The gold and silver vessels, swiftly sought, 

All tremblingly the aged keeper brings, 
Sacred, with images and symbols wrought. 
And priceless to the treasures of Earth's kings. 
But louder still hilarious laughter rings ; 
And bold Balshazar brims the golden bowl, 
And all the sacred vessels of the shrine ; 
He drinketh deep, with laughter in his soul. 
So drink they all, and mocking murmurs roll 
From lip to lip down the voluptuous line. 

But lo, a sudden portent, grim, appears. 

Sudden, as from the skies a meteor shines, 
Filling the tyrant heart with awful fears 

That made its boast in spoiling sacred shrines. 
A hand, upon the wall, in fiery lines 

Of living brightness, in an unknown speech 
Writeth, and dim reverberant thunders 
sound. 
That spirit hand, beyond the monarch's reach 
Writes on ; the kingly cheek cold terrors 
bleach 
As he had trod a serpent on the ground. 



[56] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



And MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PERES clear 
That blazing message burns. The feast of ease 
And laughter turns to unrestrained fear, 

And here and there a frightened favorite flees. 
As when a hostile hand a hive of bees 

Stirs w^ith stern touch, from every honeyed 
comb 
They fly in clusters, startled, seek the light, 
And here and there bewildered straying, 

roam 
Still drowsy, with much protest, round the 
dome. 
Some scatter, startled to precipitate flight. 

As when the last left guardians of the hive. 
Despairing as it seems, break ope the cells 
Of treasured nectar, yet to taste alive 

Those precious sweets of chastened chalice- 
wells. 
And hopeless frenzy thoughts of flight dispels, 
So turn the revellers, many a one to quafif 
Again the fount of joy, while blazing Doom 
Spells its fierce summons, the insaner half 
Mocks its dread image, and with hollow laugh 
And feverish folly rings the banquet room. 

Great Daniel stands before the king this night. 
Whom swift the queen's own messengers have 
brought. 
Skilled in all omens ; and in him the light 
Of prophec)^ who many a wonder wrought. 
But all his wisdom scorneth to be bought, 
Though many a promised land the king 
makes bloom, 

[57] 



OKIENTAL VERSES 



Till now he speaks, and saith, "Behold the 
flame!" 
Yon is the message of thy certain doom, 
For God appoints another in thy room, 

And He hath marked destruction o'er thy 
name. 

Thus shall it be: in balance thou art weighed 
And wanting found. Thy kingdom to the 
Mede, 
Ere many a time the trump of war hath brayed, 
Or many a time answered the valiant steed, 
Shall fall, the legacy of Iran's seed. 

Thou who with impious hands His cups hast 
drained, 
While all thy people drank to gods of stone, 
Under God's power alone thy line hath 

reigned, 
Under His power thy father's throne was 
gained. 
Who lifteth up and casteth down alone. 

Lo, swiftly came the storm. The conflict raged. 

Fast fighting fell Balshazar's hosts in vain. 
Against a mightier arm in strife engaged. 
He came to combat fated to be slain. 
He fought for kingdom who no more might 
reign. 
When violet dawn the sleeping heavens dyed, 
And scaled the shadow ramparts of his foe, 
The citadel of power and of pride, 
Where now no more might mirth and revel 
bide. 
Still in the arms of earth was stretched low. 

[58] 



OEIENTAij VEESES 



SHINTO 



One autumn eve, when the rude wind had hurled 
The maned wave back and left the shore be- 
reaved, 
(Silent and silvern she but lay and grieved, 

Beloved of the shy ripples as they curled 

Close to her side where her soft bosom heaved.) 

I saw a boat with neither oar nor sail 
Ride on the flood, and in the boat a man. 
And on the man a cloak of winding blue, 
And he seemed ancient as some Eastern tale 
Of genii from the land of Ispahan, 

As down the deep his silvery sampan flew. 

There sat, the while, by an old fir and bent, 
A maid of Kyushu in her gown of grey. 

With crimson geta for her lacquered slioon, 
Her obi with the cherry bloom besprent. 
And in her hair camelias. Soft and gay. 

Her voice was like a stream beneath the 
moon. 

Another stood and gazed upon the sea — 

Dim were his eyes and leaned he on a staff, 
His ancient features withered into brown. 
Child of a dead, forgotten empire, he. 

Who lived to -hear the new-born younglings 
laugh 
At the old realm forevermore gone down. 

And yet another came, the maiden's brother. 
Last named, as neither age nor weakness plead, 
But first, I judge, among true men and good. 

[59] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



Straight, in the moon, I have not seen another 
Whose form so spoke of clear and knightly 
deed — 
His mantel shadowed with a crested hood. 

Brother, I said, often have I beheld 

Somehow, afar, a dream within a dream. 
Yon silent, mystic mariner and eld. 

Whose fairy bark unstruggling wins the stream. 
Was it in forests where the fir is felled 

And tunic'd woodmen swing with singing 
stroke 

And the shy spirit flees the shuddering oak, 
Or in the smithy, where the forges weld 

The argent metal in the ardent flame — 

Swaying in rhythm with his shadowy frame, 
Then out into the dark where all is quelled. 

I think that once I sat beside a stone 

And ancient lantern by a tile-walled tomb, 
When slow he stole from the enshadowing 
gloom, 

And crooned softly in a monotone, 

And o'er the sunset veiled his mantle blue, 
Saying : My little people, sleep to you ! 

Then answered he whose frame was slim and 
true. 
Whose face was not as those who meanly war, 
Sir, 3-0U may see him seldom near the shore 
When storms and night the thundering depths 
embrew. 
Traverse the black canals where moonlight 
lies 
On masts of teak and hulls of carven oak, 

[60] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



Where the slow lorcha from the quarry plies 
With wielded pole and stern-oar's timed 
stroke 
To where the sea tosses beneath the skies. 
The temple porch is red with lantern light, 

The low bazaar where flare a thousand lamps, 
The watchman clanking- through the wide-eyed 
night — 
All is a bivouac of waking camps, 
When far the foe lies silent in his might. 

Then comes the still approach, the mist of dawn. 
The grey ghost summoned from that time re- 
mote, 
When, sailing in his silver cloud-built boat. 

The god came seeking to these coasts of morn. 

I see him then. His robe is woven fine. 
His shoon are ashen, and his voice is low. 
And then he speaks : What seek ye here to 
know, 

Far called and late to these dim shores of mine, 

Ye who are children of an alien line, 

Whose blood is not the blood within their 
veins 

Who are my children? It is I that reigns. 
Your sons have come from many a distant shrine, 

But in confusion shall ye turn again. 
What seek ye on these sacred shores of mine? 

I am of old, and you are only men ! 

Sister, what say you, is he not of those. 
Thy mother's kinsmen, dwellers of the isles. 
Whose temples gird the cryptomeria's files, 

[61] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



Whose chants are in the evening breeze that 
blows 
By traceried walls in cedarn cloisters carved, 
Where daily cunning wreaths the odorous 

wood, 
Where the grave bonzes stint their meager 
food, 
But still the geisha dance in scarlet scarved. 

She spoke, the words like summer showers 
On tired fields of autumn brown 
When thirst is in the pent-roofed town 

And tears are in the eyes of flowers : 

In many a word, in many a vision. 

In many a sound and glimpse, half caught, 

His presence, subtly inwrought. 
Hath stolen to my petty prison. 
The shadow circling o'er the wall, 

The westering sun's red rays, and low, 

The sinking of my spirit's glow 
In starlit silence over all. 
I feel his magic far away. 

Far, far away, compelling, strong. 
Upon my trembling heartstrings play 

And tempt to dear delight and song. 
The waterfall's light plash, and soft 

The passing of a whispering breeze. 
The bird that stirs the plumes aloft 

Of fringed firs and ebon trees, 

He is the silent lord of these. 
Of censered gods in golden halls. 

Of silent shrines 'mid flowers and bees, 
Of wasty shores, and lampHt walls. 
And there is music in his sway, 

[62] 



OEIENT AL VERSES 



And deathless joyance in his smile; 
He fluteth softly, I am gay ; 

He fluteth loudly, mile on mile 
I wander to the westering day ; 

And I can tell v/hen I am sad 
That he is weak and fades away 

To dreaming, but his dreams are glad ! 

Age hath the last of all, and slow of speech, 

But sure of word, he spoke the reverend sage, 
Whose silence was the wisdom of his age. 

And his white hairs no pity need beseech : 

At times upon the winding roads that turn 
Through deep, rich lands to the clean, salty 
bay, 
Amid the smoke of dim blue fires, that burn 

Amid the chafif, I meet him in the way. 
With pipe for wand enwreathed with pungent 
fern, 
The mystic opiate of his secret sway. 

Mid checkered sunlight in a temple court. 
High-walled with brick and tiled with mossy 
stone, 
(Till the thick twilight cuts his glory short 
And lulls the clamor to a monotone), 
Like a striped lizard basks he in the noon. 

Or in a crevice of the western slopes. 
Above a field of flags amid the tune 
Of piping thickets, casts he horoscopes 
In penciled shadows on an imaged moon. 
Again, at dusk I meet him in a road. 

Between the paddy fields, when grey mist 
spreads 

l63] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



Across the marshes, bending 'neath a load 

Of flaming flowers that nod their shining heads. 
Till the arch moon above the twisted pine 

Glints out, and the salt breeze is from the bay 
Where, by the shell road glistening with spray 
The sampans ride, and on my lips is brine. 
Then, then he lingers wilful in their mid 

The sleepy folk whose villages are dark 
Save for the brazier's glow but dimly hid 

Or the slim lantern's dim and fluttering spark. 
Perhaps, I do not know, but it is he 

That weaves the web of many a hempen 
strand 
Where the brown fishers wade into the sea 
And draw their shining victims to the land, 
And Kwannon prays ; all merciful is she ! 

Fly, shining sails, and find your wondrous strands, 
And you, dim sampans, to the inlet come; 

For those who pass seek on in distant lands. 
To Him the voices of unrest are dumb, 

To Him and whomsoever understands. 

Still the lights flare in the calm twilight bay 
And sampans lift their slow and slanting sails, 
And the rose glory o'er the headland pales 

And gleams, and faints, but never dies away. 

Like drowsy children at the closing day. 

The little waves fall dreaming in the haze, 
But the proud junks, their burning pyres ablaze. 

Seek the wide deep with wings that will not stay. 



[64] 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE GOBLIN KING 

Beside the grim, the grey, cold sea, 

I heard a Goblin call to me 

Beneath a rock, beside the water, 

He cried : Go pray thy lady daughter 

To bring some wine to me. 

For coldly runs the salt, salt tide. 
And I am prisoned fast and long, 
And I was wont to feast and song. 

And roaming through the woodland wide ! 

Of old, of old I roamed the wood. 

Of old I dwelt in lordly state 
Before they came, the black-heart brood 

To make me thus disconsolate. 
For coldly runs the salt, salt tide. 

And stones are hard that prisons be, 
Yet here in daily hope I bide. 

That one will hear and come to me. 

They came with drums and dancing fire. 

And wreaths and chants and incense sweet; 
They stole away my heart's desire ; 

She was all fair and lithe and fleet. 
And coldly runs the salt, salt tide ; 

Alone, they bound and prisoned me. 
Nor may I taste of aught beside. 

Though well I know the sweets there be ! 

A thousand gnomes brought golden urns. 
With red, red wine and crystal filled; 

And all my couch was flowers and ferns, 
And whatsoever maid I willed. 

[65] 



ORIENTAL VEESES 



But coldly runs the salt, salt tide, 

And men ride up the high, white road, 

And many a goodly maid beside. 
Nor ever glance to my abode. 

The bee sucks sweetness all the day. 

And dwells in flowers from morn to night, 
But never, never need he stay. 

And never feels he gloom nor blight. 
But coldly flows the salt, salt tide, 

And I am weary of my breath. 
Though all the world is fair beside, 

And yet I taste nor life nor death. 

In feasts we sat at silken boards 

Endraped with silver gossameres, 
And round me sat my bearded lords. 

And maidens served whose sires were peers. 
And coldly runs the salt, salt tide ; 

I loved too well and she was fair, 
And here in bondage dire I bide. 

Who never thought to know despair. 

I hate the stone, I fear the water ; 

I dread the grey, the moaning sea; 
I pray thee bid thy lady daughter 

To fetch some wine to me. 
For coldly runs the salt, salt tide. 

And all the foam is salt and strong; 
And here, athirst and cramped, I bide; 

And I have waited, waited long! 



t66 3 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



GLOW GOLDEN OCEAN 

Glow, golden ocean, on thy silver sands ! 
The city stretches, grey and lonely, here, 
But o'er its spires I know that thou art near, 

And when the task is heavy on our hands 
And gross earth-voices only do we hear 

Thou rollest free, and surging o'er thy strands, 

Glow, golden ocean, on thy silver sands 1 

Earth binds her chains and lays her strait com- 
mands, 
And we, her bondmen, do her constant will, 
But thou art far from engine and from mill, 

Thy speech is ever of unpeopled lands. 

So bid us dream, and dreaming, hoping still. 

The man-made city thick about us stands. 

Glow, golden oce.in, on thy silver sands! 



[67] 



OEIENTAL VERSES 



SAMOTHOE 



Samothoe, dim pilot and unseen, 

Who through the gloom my glinting bark dost 

guide, 
Whence springs the wind, where sets the mys- 
terious tide 
That under all the moon's caressing sheen 
Draws ever on and will not be denied? 
Lost are the friendly shores that once we sailed 
beside. 

Samothoe, I hear the swelling drum, 

The great wind pipes upon the minor key 
Of floods in caverns that I cannot see. 

Guide, guide my bark, that when the torrent come 
Alone, upon us fleeting, thee and me. 
Our brows may yet be calm, our hearts may yet 
be free. 



[ 68 1 



OEIENTAL VEESES 



THE HEART THAT REMEMBERS 

It is far from the hills to the wave tossed shore, 
From their deathless calm to its ceaseless war 
And the ebb and flow of the restless tide, 
And Time is heavy and Earth is wide, 

And the days will lag in the brightest fall. 
But the heart that remembers o'ercomes them 
all. 

The surge will foam in its rainbow spray 
On boulder and cave through the long, bright day 
And roll far out in its phosphorent light 
Through the starlit hush of the listening night, 
And no one hark to its silent call. 
But the heart that remembers beats on 
through all. 

The myrtle Vv^ill crimson, and bye and bye 
The winds o'er its shivering branch will sigh. 
And the tangled paths will be white with frost 
And the way over boulder and brake be lost. 
And lonely leaves will flutter and fall, 
But the heart that remembers outlasts them 
all. 



-69l 



